Children raised on a vegetarian diet are nearly twice as likely to be underweight as those who eat meat, a study suggests. Most vegetarian children are a healthy weight, however, with no nutritional deficiencies.
at St. Michael’s Hospital of Unity Health Toronto and his colleagues looked at nearly 9000 Canadian children aged between 6 months and 8 years old, with an average age of 2. The researchers measured the children’s height and weight, and analysed blood samples for levels of various nutrients, as part of a .
About 6 per cent of the vegetarian children were classed as underweight, compared with around 3 per cent of the meat eaters. This was defined as having a body mass index – a measure of weight relative to height – that was more than two standard deviations below the group’s average for their age.
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The meat-eating children were slightly more likely to be classed as overweight. However, this wasn’t statistically significant and therefore the difference may have arisen by chance.
The vegetarian children were also no more likely to be deficient in iron or vitamin D, nutrients found in meat and dairy products, respectively, than their meat-eating counterparts.
As a relatively small proportion of the children were underweight, and the study found no other health issues linked with being vegetarian, the findings should reassure parents that this is generally a safe diet, says Maguire.
For a few children, however, not eating meat may make it harder to take in sufficient calories.
“Children are picky,” says Maguire. “If you’re already struggling with gaining weight and we put something on top that makes it a little bit more difficult to get calories, it may tip the balance in a way that’s not favourable.”
If parents are worried about their child’s weight, they should discuss it with their family doctor, says , a dietitian in Exeter in the UK, who is a spokesperson for the .
The study would have been more informative if it had assessed the quality of the children’s diets, says Phillips. “A vegetarian diet, like a meat-eating diet, can vary massively, from a balanced diet to one that isn’t so healthy,” she says.
The researchers also didn’t analyse whether the children’s parents ate meat or if they were vegetarian for religious reasons.
Pediatrics
